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Daily Archives: October 16, 2014

The Washington Post’s Michel du Cille was supposed to critique student portfolios at Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications this week, but the university told him today to stay away. The reason: The photojournalist was in Liberia last month covering the Ebola crisis.

Michel du Cille

“I am pissed off,” says du Cille, who returned from Liberia 21 days ago. “I am disappointed in the level of journalism at Syracuse, and I am angry that they missed a great teaching opportunity. Instead they have decided to jump in with the mass hysteria.”

Donald R. Winslow reports:

Since his return from Liberia, Du Cille has been following CDC guidelines and monitoring himself closely for symptoms. He has been taking his temperature at least twice a day (but actually more like on the hour, every hour) for the past 21 days.

Just yesterday, du Cille spent all day with Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Thomas Frieden at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

And this afternoon du Cille just finished photographing Dr. Frieden on Capitol Hill where he testified before a Congressional Hearing on the Ebola crisis.

“I heard by phone around 10:30 a.m. [Thursday],” du Cille tells me in an email. “Late last night I received an email from the Dean, essentially recapping what we said on the phone when we finally spoke directly at 5 p.m. The earlier [10:30 a.m.] call came from [Newhouse School photography professor] Bruce Strong, who was very gracious and apologized.”

Du Cille says he was booked for the workshop during the summer, and that he’s done several of them over the years.

Update — Newhouse School dean Lorraine Branham tells Winslow:

[Du Cille] was disinvited because of concerns that were generated by some students that led me to believe that it would lead to even more concerns. So it was in the best interest of the students for me to withdraw the invitation.

Lorraine Branham

[Thursday] morning I learned that he had been at the CDC, I learned that he had been back 21 days, and I learned that he had been traveling with the [CDC] director…

But even knowing that, it’s my responsibility to protect the students. Twenty-one days is the CDC’s standard, but there have been questions raised about whether the incubation period is longer. I knew that parents would be upset. And at the end of the day my concern is about the students.

Former Writer’s Digest editor John Brady, whose “The Craft of Interviewing” was first published in 1977, tells Lisa Waananen Jones that he’s mentioned the “Tom Brady” error in the AP’s “The Word” to an “Associated Press Stylebook” editor at least once.

Brady writes:

The error is even more glaring now that there is a wonderful football player named Tom Brady (who is probably asked about his interviewing book in the locker room regularly). Ah, yes. … Isn’t there an old maxim, no such thing as bad publicity, unless they get your name wrong? And here I sit, with a big fat error in the one book you’d think would get it right. Aaaarrrrgghhh.

Kristin Thorne of New York’s ABC7 News did a story Tuesday about a high school scavenger hunt that had “illegal and dangerous” tasks for game participants. (“Steal a mailbox” …”Steal a street sign” …”Lick bathroom floor in applebees”) The kids didn’t care for her report and, Thorne reports, “I got a very good taste of what it’s like to be bullied in high school via social media. …The things they’ve written about me on Twitter are disgusting.”

One teen tweeted: “DM me nudes and I’ll tell you everything.” A tweet from the @SachemSeniors account said: “They want to make reports on the wrong story’s.” Another student: “I don’t think @ABC7 is aware this is just making our senior year better.”

Letter to RomeneskoFrom a Los Angeles/San Francisco Daily Journal staffer: Our bread and butter – what we write about day in and day out [at the Daily Journal] – are lawsuits. Lawsuits that are in the public sphere, that anyone can find out about even if they are not publicized.

Another thing we report on regularly are how businesses are using mandatory arbitration provisions to prevent their employees from filing lawsuits. This is a big problem for a newspaper that depends on lawsuits to fill its pages.

So it with huge angst and anger that the Daily Journal has now implemented the exact same employment provision that undermines the reporters’ ability to do their job. If the reporters here want to keep their job, they must agree to waive their right to file a lawsuit and pursue any complaints in a CONFIDENTIAL arbitration proceeding. For a legal newspaper, this turn of events has me — and everyone at the paper — in disbelief.

* Gannett CFO: “We have a number of investors saying, ‘We’re very interested in publishing…'” (cfo.com)
* Publishers want to get out of Apple’s Newsstand app. One gripe: “Readers are subscribing, but then they forget to come back.” (digiday.com)
* McSweeney’s publishing house, “a hand-to-mouth operation,” will become a nonprofit. (sfgate.com) | (nytimes.com)
* [At right] “Know who’s having a fun MLB postseason? The @KCStar’s page designers.” (@jfdulac)
* Pulitzer-winner Laurie Garrett: “I was screaming and yelling about [Ebola] back in May, and I was stunned by how little interest there was.” (Washington Post)
* The Montana editor who was arrested for taking crash-scene photos pleads not guilty to three charges. (missoulian.com)
* Garry Marshall: “I learned a lot [at Medill], but mostly I learned how to meet a deadline. So I’m never late.” (mediabistro.com)
* The investigative reporter at Gannett’s Asheville Citizen-Times “is exempt from the daily grind.” (streetfightmag.com)
* Twitter accounts that New York Times staffers follow. (tylerp.me)
* What happened to the Detroit News’ 1982 Pulitzer medallion? “I think someone took it home.” (deadlinedetroit.com)
* Seth Stevenson visits High Times’ offices and learns that weed-smoking isn’t allowed there. (“But I have a powerful hunch that this edict meets with less than 100% compliance.”) (slate.com)
* Claim: Aaron Kushner kept tips intended for Orange County Register carriers. (laobserved.com)* Providence Phoenix’s farewell issue is out today. (thephoenix.com)
* Deadspin’s Cory Gardner football career story disputed. (denverpost.com)
* E.W. Scripps closes Knoxville weekly Metro Pulse. (knoxnews.com)
* An Oregonian reporter finds a rat in his toilet – and has photo evidence. (oregonlive.com)
* Michael Crowley leaves Time for Politico. (mediabistro.com)
* No time for you, Gas Station TV, I’ve got a windshield to clean. (npr.org)
* I’d pay for Gas Station TV before giving $6 a month to CBS. (recode.net)